Total physical response

Total Physical response

TPR(total physical response) is a method of teaching language using physical movement to react to verbal input to reduce student inhibitions their affective filter. It allows students to react to language without too much, facilitates long term retention, and reduces student anxiety and stress. In order to implement TPR affectively, is it necessary to plan regularsession that progress in a logical order, and to keep several principles in mind.

The theories behind TPR
• Childhood language acquisition theories

Children are exposed to huge amounts of language input before speaking. Language learners can also benefit from following this “natural” progression from comprehension to production, instead of the more normal situation where learners areasked to produce instantly.

• The right brain divide

the left brain can be described as logical, one-track, and cynical. It is used when analyzing, talking,discussing. Etc. Most classroom activities in Japan are aimed at the left brain is used when moving, acting, using, metaphor, drawing, pointing, etc. It is targeted by sport and extra-curricularactivities in Japanese schools.When language is taught by lecturing or explaining, tha cynical left brain is targeted and the information is kept in short term memory (if at all). It is soon forgotten as it never becomes “real” to the student.
When language is taught actively through movement, the right brain “believes” the information and retains it, in the same way that skills such as swimming or riding a bicycle areremembered long term.

• Lowering stress and the affective filter

Students learn more when they are relaxed. This is bacause the affective filter , a mental barrier between the students and the information, is raised when students are nervous or uncomfortable. When the affective filter is high, learners find it harder to understand, process, and remember information.

TPR helpsreduce the affective filter because it is less threatening than traditional language activities. Students do not have to produce language. Mistakes are unimportan and easily (and painlessly) corrected by the teacher. Language is remembered easily and long-term.

REVIEWING THE PRINCIPLES
we will next turn to our ten questions in order to increase our understanding of Total Physical Response.1. what are the goals of teachers who use TPR?

Teachers who use TPR belive in the importance of having their students enjoy their experience in learning to communicate in a foreign language. In fact, TPR was developed in order to reduce the stress people feel when studying foreign languages and thereby encourage students to persist in their study beyond a beginning level of proficiency.2. what is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?
Initially, the teacher is the director of all student behavior. The students are imitators of her nonverbal model. At some point (usually after ten to twenty hours of instruction), some student will be “ready to speak”. At that point there will be a role reversal with individual students directing the teacher and theother students.

3. what are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?

The first phase of a lesson is one of modeling. The instructor issues commands to a few students, the performs the actions with them. In the second phase, these same students demonstrate that they can understand the commands by performing them alone. The observers also have an opportunity to demonstratetheir understanding.

4. What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? What is the nature of student-student interction?

The teacher interacts with the whole group of students and with individual students. Initially the interaction is characterized by the teacher speaking and the students responding nonverbally. Later on, the students become more verbal and the teacher responds...